General Information - Demographics

Turkey has a population of 65 million inhabitants and is a member of the European Board of Urology (EBU). 72 Urological departments are operating all over the country. There are 1900 Urologists (1 urologist per 34,210 inhabitants) and 400 Residents (1 resident per approx. 5 urologists). 

National Urological Society & Residents Organization

National Communication Officers

Urological training

In Turkey residency requires a qualification in the Medical Residency Examination. This exam is done twice a year and the graduates make a choice list and get a residency according to the point they get this means everybody has the chance of getting a residency wherever she/he wants. But in general only the 10% of graduates win a residency program per exam. After the exam the time of residency is four years which mat be elongated 50%. In University Hospitals it is generally 5 years. But next year the training will be 5 years in all University and education hospitals. At the moment there is no standard curriculum for the training. During the education, residents have 6 months of General Surgery, 2 months of anesthesia and two months of Nephrology rotations. There are 52 university hospitals in Turkey all of them have Urology department and in a few years the residency training will begin in all of the 52 hospitals. And also there are 20 government education hospitals located in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa cities. Generally education includes weekly case discussions, lectures and department meetings. In Ankara there is a monthly resident education lectures which are done on a modular basis. During education residents generally perform most of the open, endoscopic surgeries. The oncological surgery percutaneous renal surgery is now nearly common in the big city university hospitals which yield enough cases for residency training. Laparoscopic surgery is newly increasing but at the moment it is not enough. All residents in Turkey are welcome to enter EBU in service examination in which last year 120 were from Turkey out of 660 throughout Europe. Until this year the residency qualification examination was performed in the residents’ own institute which generally composed of oral examination and surgical performance. From now on a standard national board examination will be taken by all residents.

Career prospects

Turkey has a ratio of 1/45000 urologist according to overall population. But most of the urologists as others are mainly located in the western parts of Turkey. In the eastern parts there are careers available including the university hospitals as much as government hospitals. As in compliance with the EU the residency training program is revised and there will be a board examination. At the moment, the arrangements are carried out for Pediatric Urology and Andrology-Infertility sub-specialist programs by the major university hospitals for being accredited by EBU.

Fellowship - Research Opportunities

At the moment there is certified fellowship program which will be available soon.

National links

• http://uroturk.org.tr